Of Fathers and Sons
by Karussell
Summary: Of Fathers and Sons : "I felt ... insufficient. Like a disappointment. No matter what I tried, my younger sister was already better at it than me." : Zuko, Aang, Sokka : AU
1. zuko and roku

1\. zuko and roku

"When I was a boy", Zuko said gravely and kneeled before his son, "I wasn't a very good bender."

The boy blinked, sceptical, but he didn't interrupt.

"I felt ... insufficient. Like a disappointment. No matter what I tried, my younger sister was already better at it than me."

Roku looked down.

"My cousin Lu Ten saw, how all of this affected me. He tried teaching me new techniques that Azula didn't know, yet, but I was clumsy and impatient and expected too much of myself. So, he decided to instead instruct me in something he knew, she'd never want to try. Something I wouldn't have to compare myself, wouldn't up to measure up to her anyone."

The prince sniffled.

"Why are you telling me this, Dad?"

Zuko smiled gently.

"I know you feel like you have to compare yourself to Kya, Roku. That you think you're a worse bender than her."

Roku made a sad face.

"But I am."

His father shook his head, sighing.

"Everybody learns at their own pace, my son, and that's perfectly alright. A lot of things come easier to Kya than to you and I know that can be frustrating. But you're working hard to reach your goals, and that will never be a bad thing."

He stood.

"Today, I want to show you what Lu Ten taught me all this time ago. Only if you want to, of course."

The child's eyes lit up.

"Really?"

Zuko reached behind his back and drew the twin swords, held them out to Roku.

"Really."


	2. aang and gyatso

2\. aang and gyatso

When Aang opened his eyes, a little face lay so near before his, he barely recognized that it belonged to his son.

He yawned.

Behind him, her back to his, Toph snored quietly.

"Daddy, I had a nightmare", Gyatso whispered and lifted his hand, rubbed his stormy grey eyes that still glistened with tears.

"Mmh. Come 'ere, buddy."

The man wrapped his armes around his son and pulled him close, shut his eyes again when the child snuggled into his chest.

"Daddy, are you sad that I'm not an airbender?"

"I'm very glad that you're an earthbender", Aang mumbled tiredly.

"But Bumi and Ila and Vayu all are airbenders and the new baby will probably be, too, and in my dream, you left, 'cause I wasn't and ... and ..."

He sniffled.

"And you said, that you didn't love me."

"I love you kids more than anything under the sun", Aang whispered calmly. "You and your siblings and your mother, you are the most important thing in the world to me. I love you so very much, Gyatso, I'd voluntarily give up my bending for you. And will always love you, because you're my son. My clever, brave, funny, happy, absolutly wonderful son."

"... So you don't sometimes wish I was an airbender?"

"No. You are absoulutly fantastic just the way you are and I wouldn't ever wish for you to be something you're not. You wouldn't be my Gyatso anymore."

He pressed a kiss to the little boy's forehead.

"Love you, Daddy."

"I love you, too, buddy."


	3. aang and bumi

3\. aang and bumi

"I can't do it, Dad."

"I know, it can be a little frightening, especially before the first time, but believe me, as soon as you're in the air, there's no better feeling."

"Mom disagrees."

"Mom's lying. She likes to fly with me very much."

"Really?"

"... On most days."

"Were you scared?"

"Well, ... no. But a very good friend of mine, Ginzou, was extremely nervous before our first flight and-"

"Dad, is this a real friend or somebody made up, because we can't ask your friends anymore?"

"He's very real. He was Kaze's grandfather."

"Do you miss him?"

"Bumi."

The boy sighed.

"He was afraid of heights, terribly. I'm not sure anymore how the monks convinced him to fly in the end, but I do know that he loved it just as much as the rest of as."

"That's a bad story, Dad. And not very convincing."

"I will be there, Bumi, whatever happens. I won't let anything bad happen to you."


	4. aang and vayu

4\. aang and vayu

"Dad?"

Before Aang could even lift his gaze from the letters and papers scattered over his desk, little hands grabbed for the cloth of his robes and moments later, Vayu sat in his lap, hair tangled, glasses askew.

The man smiled.

"How may I help you, son?"

Vayu played with his necklace's wooden pearl, traced the symbol for air that was carved into its pendant with his finger tip.

"I've got a question."

"Mh-hm, I'm all ears."

"How come there's a baby in Mommy? How did it get in there?"

Aang blinked.

"Uhm ..."

His son looked up to him curiously.

"You know how Mommy's the greatest earthbender in the whole wide world, right?"

A nod."

"And I'm the Avatar, but above all a very good airbender, aren't I?"

"Uh-huh."

"So Mom and me, we only need a stone and a little bit of air to make a baby. Mommy looks for the perfect stone and ... hm ... I do a very special airbending trick that you're to young to learn, yet, and ... I do that with the stone, of course ... And then we put it in her belly button, because, as you know, that's were the baby grows-"

"In Mommy's belly button?"

"In Mommy's belly, Vayu."

The child pulled a thoughtful face.

"I'm made of earth and air, then?"

"Exactly."

Aang smiled and tousled his hair.

"How did Uncle Sokka and Auntie Suki make Kyoshi, Kanna and Piandao, then? They're not benders. But Piandao's an earthbender. How did that work, if he isn't made of air and earth? Where does he get his bending from? And Uncle Zuzu and Auntie Katara can't bend air or earth, either, so how did they make Lu Ten, Kya and Roku?"

"I ... don't know. It's something very special that Mommys and Daddys can only figure out with their ... soulmates, and they don't have to tell how they did it if they don't want to. So I don't know how anybody except for you and your siblings came to be."

Seemingly satisfied with his father's answers for now, Vayu nodded and climbed from his lap, just as Gyatso cried from the doorway: "That's not what you told me, Dad!"


	5. zuko and lu ten

5\. zuko and lu ten

The boy sipped his tea.

He looked a lot like his namesake while doing so and a little like his aunt, but then again, he always did, or at least Zuko thought so.

Uncle insisted that his youngest was a carbon copy of himself at the same age, safe for the slightly darker skin, and Katara had more than once noticed the resemblance between father and son, but he doubted he'd ever quite see what say saw in the child's face.

"I don't like this one as much as the last one Grandpa Iroh sent us."

"You don't?"

"No. He's experimenting again."

Lu Ten crinkled his nose, making his father smile.

"I'll be sure to tell him in my next letter."

"Are we gonna visit him again soon?"

"Next month, actually. There are a few meetings your mother and I have to attend in Ba Sing Se. I'm sure, Grandpa won't mind looking after you and your siblings while we are otherwise occupied."

The boy's face lit up.

"Do you think, he's gonna let me make tea myself? I've been working on heating it up!"

He held the cup out and pulled a concentrated face.

Zuko lifted an eyebrow.

It didn't take long for Lu Ten to let out a yelp and the cup was sent flying in the Fire Lord's direction, who dodged the hot liquid not a second too late, only a little of it splashing on his robes.

"That tea was already hot, son", he said, supressing a small smile.

Lu Ten sighed.

"Yeah ..."

"I think, your grandfather will quite appreciate your enthusiasmus, Lu Ten."


	6. sokka and piandao

6\. sokka and piandao

"May I join you?"

Piandao, who had been sitting in the snow and starring heavenward for the past hour, lowered the hand he'd used to shield his eyes from the sun and looked over his shoulder, up into his father's face.

"Huh?"

Sokka smiled.

"Can I sit down with you?"

"Sure."

The boy went back to watching the clouds, searching for the shape of a flying bisons between them.

"They're gonna be here any minute now, right?"

"I'm sure, buddy. You're very excited, huh?"

"Yeah. I've only been to the temple, like, once and it's gonna be so cool to finally learn more than the basics. Plus, there's not ice and snow everywhere, I'll be actually able to bend! Like, without destroying half the house."

His blue eyes twinkled.

"I mean, I'll miss you guys, I guess, but it's not forever, right? Just a few months. And we can write and stuff and maybe you can come visit or to take me back here, so I can show you everything Auntie Toph taught me! That'd be great, right?"

"It sure would."

The man wrapped his strong arm around his only son and the child snuggled into his side immediatly, sighing quietly.

"Won't be the same without you here, though."

He pressed a kiss on the top of his head.

"But I know how important it is for a bender to learn to control their power. Your Aunt Katara froze me so many times when we were kids, I don't think I could even count them all today."

"And I won't ever go away after that without you. Promise. I'll always live at the South Pole."

"I don't think you will. An earthbender needs earth, son."

"But I like it here! I know Kyoshi wants to join her warriors and that you and Mom are worried about her being away, soon, but me and Kanna, we'll always stay. She's gonna be chieftain and I'll build houses."

"That's a nice idea, Dao."


	7. aang and kuzon

7\. aang and kuzon

"Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"I wish I wasn't blind. I wanna see colours and how the world looks when you take me flying. Bumi says, everything gets small, even smaller than my favourite pebble, when you're up really high. How's orange look?"

Aang pulled the little boy into his lap, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Orange?"

"Yup."

"Orange ... The orange of my robes is like the warmth of the sun tickling your nose and then wrapping itself around you like a blanket. It's ... energy and ... happiness, at least for me, and I think, it's my favourite colour next to green."

"What's green look like?"

"There are ... lots of different shades of green. Mom's eyes are green, for example. They look ... how a shard that's been in the ocean for a long time feels. The salt made its edges round and maybe it made the glass a little rougher, it's not so smooth anymore, but it still is glass, it's still cool and firm. Grass is green, too. It looks just like it feels when it's wet with morning dew. Fresh, like waking up and washing your face."

Kuzon turned his face up, milky grey eyes curious.

"And black? My hair's black, right?"

"It is. Black ... is cold. But not being cold because it's windy or because you're visiting the Poles, more like ... cold on the inside, you know? Hopelessness ... Desperation ... But if we're describing your hair, it's also very, very soft. More like a blanket, again. Or Appa's fur."

He ruffled the child's hair.


	8. aang and lao

8\. aang and lao

"Faster, Daddy, faster!"

The child pulled his father's ears and the man grimaced in pain, because Lao was much stronger than he looked at first glance.

"Faster, faster!"

"You know", Aang said, without quickening his pace, "Kuzon always hated it to ride on my shoulders. He didn't like being away from the ground or not being able to feel around for stuff."

Lao kicked his chubby legs, ramming his heels into Aang's chest.

"Kuzon's boring", he called. "I'm not Kuzon! Faster now, Daddy!"

"We're not in a hurry, son."

Aang grabbed the boy's shins.

"Bumi and Gyatso won't be home before sundown, and I know you can't see it, but it's still a long time before it gets dark, so don't worry. You won't miss their arrival, even if we take a break now."

"No breaks!"

Lao struggled against the hold his father had on his legs.

"You've missed your brothers a lot, huh?", the Avatar smiled, glancing up at his youngest child, who was staring blindly ahead, fidgeting.

"They've been gone for, like, practically years!"

"It's not even been a month, Lao-Lao."

"Yeah! That's forever! I'm practically an old man now!"

"Life with you never gets boring, kiddo."


	9. ozai and zuko

9\. ozai and zuko

The boy had been born blue, not crying at all, he was told.

He had been sitting with his father and brother, talking politics, drinking tea, when a servant came rushing into the room, breathless from running, and stuttered something about birth complications and a baby that wasn't breathing.

Iroh urged him to go, no doubt thinking about his own wife, who had died nearly ten years ago in childbirth, and so he had gone, not in a hurry, to find his wife, still surrounded by doctors and a midwife, with the baby in her arms, relieve evident on her face.

She smiled a little, the careful, guarded smile she reserved only for him, before looking down at their firstborn once again.

"Why don't you take a look at him, Ozai?", she asked softly.

He stepped closer.

The boy wasn't crying, merely whimpering, mewling like a newborn kitten, and he was very pale, still more blue than pink, not like Lu Ten had been.

His amber eyes seemed tired, exhausted, really, and there was no spark in them, a spark he had expected, after what his father told him.

You recognized a firebender by their eyes as soon as they were born, the fire burning behind them, but there was no fire, no flame, not the tiniest spark in the baby's eyes.

Ursa stroked the little boy's cheek, unaware of his thoughts, lost in the very same eyes he already despised, thinking them more beautiful than anything else in the world.

"I thought of Zuko", she said cautiously. "It suits him, I think ..."

"Name him whatever you want. I do not care."

He furrowed his brow as the baby snuggled deeper into his mother's robes, sniffling a little.


	10. hakoda and sokka

10\. hakoda and sokka

Hakoda caressed his son's head as the boy held onto him for dear life.

"You can't leave without me", Sokka cried, the sound of his voice muffled by his father's coat he was sobbing into. "I'm a man, too! I'm a man, Dad! I want to come fight with you and the others! I'm strong enough, I swear."

He lifted his head, the blue ocean of his eyes overflowing with tears.

"Please, Dad."

"I know how strong you are, Sokka", Hakoda said gently. "Which is why I'm leaving you here. Somebody has to take care of the village, don't you think? Somebody has to stay here to defend everybody."

Sokka snuffled.

"It's very important that you stay here. I need you to look after Gran Gran and your sister as long as I can't, okay? I trust you with that."

"I don't want you to go", the boy admitted in a small voice. "What if you don't come back? I can barely remember Mom ... I don't want to forget you, too."

Hakoda sighed.

He took Sokka's arms, loosening his grip on him so he could kneel down before his son, could look up into his sad, sad face.

"I promise I will come back, Sokka. Nothing can keep me from coming back to my family. It may take a while, but I will come back home. I love you and your sister so very much, son. And it pains me to leave without you, but I have to. I have to help end this war, because I want a good life for you two."

He whiped away a tear.

"I will be back, Sokka."

The child wrapped the scrawny arms around his neck and started wheeping again.


	11. tenzin and aang

So, I know that in LoK, "Tenzin" is Aang and Katara's youngest son and the only airbender. I decided against using it for one of his AU-children, but I still like the name very much. So, in this, "Tenzin" is Aang's biological father, because I think it makes a nice connection. (As Gyatso, Aang's father figure, is clearly named after the current Dalai Lama, who's name is Tenzin Gyatso, which probably is the reason for Tenzin's name in LoK, too.) So, you know ... that's the reason for that. Sorry, if that is confusing for the people who've watched LoK.

* * *

11\. tenzin and aang

"The Avatar, huh?"

He couldn't look away from his son, who was happily playing with his new toys, the toys that had changed his little life forever without him even knowing.

"That means I'll have to leave him here, doesn't it?"

He could hear his former guardian step closer, felt a strong hand grip his shoulder.

"It's tradition for the Avatar to be raised at one of the temples, son. And it's probably the best you can do for him, with the political climate how it is at the moment. He's going to need all the training he can get."

"He is my child, Gyatso. Everything that's left of Aanjing."

He dragged a hand through his wild hair.

"I don't know what I'd have done without him ..."

"It is your decision, Tenzin."

"They won't let me leave with him. You know that. For all the open-mindedness the Air Nomads are praised for by the other nations, you know how stuck in their ways the Elders are."

He sighed.

"He'll have a good life here."

"You know he would."

"I want you to be his guardian, if I do this. I know you'll care well for him."

"Consider it done."


	12. iroh and lu ten

12\. iroh and lu ten

The little prince was a bundle of energy and Iroh chuckled quietly as he watched him run through the garden, probably scaring Ursa's poor turtle ducks half to death.

"I'm gonna be a brother, I'm gonna be a brother, I'm gonna be a brother!", Lu Ten chanted excitedly, running circles around his father, arms stretched out.

"A cousin", Iroh corrected, not for the first time, though he know it would fall on deaf ears.

Lu Ten was convinced his aunt's baby would be his little brother, and liked to announce his impending brotherhood to everybody who'd listen - and everybody who wouldn't, too -, which had let to some rumors about just how close of a relationship Prince Iroh had to his younger brother's wife.

"I hope, it's a boy", Lu Ten continued happily. "I'll be able to teach him so much, Daddy! I'll show him my coolest firebending moves and how to use the Dao Swords and we'll be the best of friends and I'll always protect him from the things that I was scared of when I was little."

He jumped onto Iroh's back, arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

"Was it nice to be Uncle Ozai's big brother?"

"It was certainly ... something. But I was already eighteen when he was born and I had a lot of responsibilities, so I didn't see a lot of him when he was growing up", Iroh answered honestly. "I wish, I could've spend a little more time with him, though."

"I'll spend lots of time with my baby brother."

"As you should, my little dragon."


	13. gyatso and aang

I have one chapter left after this. (Iroh and Zuko) If anybody who's reading this has any ideas for who else to cover, tell me!

* * *

13\. gyatso and aang

"I am so very proud of you, Aang."

And indeed, Gyatso beamed with pride as he looked at his young ward, who was sitting on the other side of the Pai Sho board and who's arrow tattoos were only half finished, yet.

"The youngest Master in Air Nomad history. That's quite an achievement."

The boy grinned crookedly.

"That's about the millionth time you've told me that. I think you're much happier about this than me", he replied and shifted a tile. "Now you can brag about me."

"I can. And I will, because I don't think I've ever been prouder in my life. Inventing a new technique at such a young age!"

"You're gonna inflate my ego", Aang said.

"Don't listen to the Elders. You deserve to be proud and to bask in your success for a while. There's time to be humble again after that."

"I just wanted to have some fun."

"Well, the best inventions get made that way."

"They do?"

"Pretty sure. You'll have to continue teaching me how to use your air scooter after we finish this game."

Aang smiled.


	14. iroh and zuko

14\. iroh and zuko

"Did I ever thank you for following me into banishment?", Zuko asked while he observed his newborn son's every movement.

"There was never a need for that."

Iroh caressed his grandnephew's tan skin, his soft, black hair.

"Did I ever thank you for sticking with me the way you did?", the young Fire Lord continued.

"You did. Where are you going with this, Nephew?"

Zuko exhaled and a smile tugged on his lips when little Roku wrapped his fingers around the tip of his thumb.

"I am a father now, Uncle. And without you, I wouldn't be sitting here, with my son and my beautiful wife sleeping just a few rooms away. I don't know if I'd even be alive today if it hadn't been for you. My mother planted good in me, but without you, there wouldn't have been anybody to nurture it. I was so angry and I was so ... lost ... and you never would've left my side for even a second if I hadn't pushed you away. And when we found eachother again, you hugged me and forgave me without even thinking about it. You always saw something in me nobody else could see. And I am grateful for everything you did for me. I am so very grateful."

Iroh touched Zuko's shoulder.

"Without you, I wouldn't know how to be a father. I wouldn't know who I was. I'd still be lost. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is ... you always were more of a father to me than Ozai. And it would be an honor to call you my son's grandfather."

Zuko looked up, met his eyes.

"I already consider you his grandfather, anyway."

"As I consider him my grandson."


End file.
